Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Credit: NASA

The developer of the Dream Chaser –Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) — has filed a legal challenge to the award of contracts to Boeing and SpaceX under NASA’s Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) program.

SNC’s filing seeks a further detailed review and evaluation of the submitted proposals and capabilities.

Dream Chaser was the only vehicle remaining in the Commercial Crew Program that was not a capsule.

“In its 51 year history SNC has never filed a legal challenge to a government contract award,” the company stated in a press release. “However, in the case of the CCtCap award, NASA’s own Source Selection Statement and debrief indicate that there are serious questions and inconsistencies in the source selection process.”

Because of these factors, SNC “feels that there is no alternative but to institute a legal challenge.”

SNC Space Systems filed a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

According to SNC, the official NASA solicitation for the CCtCap contract prioritized price as the primary evaluation criteria for the proposals, setting it equal to the combined value of the other two primary evaluation criteria: mission suitability and past performance.

“SNC’s Dream Chaser proposal was the second lowest priced proposal in the CCtCap competition. SNC’s proposal also achieved mission suitability scores comparable to the other two proposals.”

SNC believes the result of further evaluation of the proposals submitted “will be that America ends up with a more capable vehicle, at a much lower cost, with a robust and sustainable future.”